New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker introduced a measure recently on marijuana that could dramatically improve the lives of thousands of blacks and Latinos in the Philadelphia region if fully implemented, letter and spirit.

There is much to applaud in President Trump’s decision to attack the Bashar Assad regime this week. It punished a regime that has engaged in war crimes against its own people. It upheld an international norm against chemical weapons.

There was a brief moment after Donald Trump’s election when it was conceivable to ask whether he would strive to be a “uniter” or a “divider.” The moment passed quickly as Trump made it clear that he does not intend to abandon the style of politics -- insulting and divisive -- that got him elected. His declaration last week that the news media are “the enemy of the American people” is but the latest reminder.

After his spat with Mexico, after the travel ban, this week Donald Trump did something that surprised me. He put in place a policy with which I agreed. He placed a smart check on ever-proliferating federal regulations. His executive action requires any department that wants to add a new regulation to get rid of two existing ones. It might seem gimmicky, but the British government adopted just this “one-in, two-out” rule in 2012 and it’s worked well.

The U.S. Senate has finally responded to the debt crisis in Puerto Rico with the new Promesa law. The problem is, Puerto Ricans have no say in how they will begin to dig out of the deep debt hole they find themselves in.

As if it weren’t enough to be talented, gorgeous and famous, Colombian superstar Shakira has added another superlative to her repertoire: her Facebook page hit 100 million likes July 18. She is the first person to do so.